Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Liberals eying absolute targets for large emitters?

Tiny story in today's online National Post - the Liberals are supposedly considering absolute targets for large final emitters as part of their election plan, as opposed to the intensity-based targets that the Conservatives (and previous Liberal governments) have been working on.

National Post story

My Comments: I'm very glad to see absolute targets being discussed for emissions trading, and I hope this is a bit more long lasting than Stephane Dion's brief endorsement of a carbon tax. I don't know if this is an issue that can grab the public's attention politically, and who knows at this point if the Liberals will make it back into power, but I am certain that absolute targets, even if extremely generous ones initially, are a better choice for Canada. They would provide more certainty in terms of our reductions achievements, and will make it much easier for our system to become integrated with the European Emissions Trading System and other eventual tradeable permit systems based on absolute targets.

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